The supervisor looked at Talos coldly and replied expressionlessly:
"Nick Fury has resigned. He left the campus yesterday."
"Impossible!" Talos felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He rushed forward to plead, "How could he abandon us..."
"It is a fact, Mr. Talos. He is no longer an employee of Vought." The armed guard raised his rifle, pressing the muzzle down—a warning gesture.
"Now, please comply with Headquarters' arrangements. Line up and enter the medical pods in order."
Talos stood frozen in place.
Betrayal.
Total betrayal.
The man who once promised to find them a new home, the man they followed even at the cost of betraying their own kind, had simply walked away at the moment they faced the forced deprivation of their racial talents.
The news quickly spread throughout the plaza.
The angry Skrulls suddenly fell silent.
All the protests, shouts, and struggles turned into a deathly silence at this moment.
Without Fury's protection, in this solid fortress heavily guarded by Vought, they didn't even have the right to resist.
"Line up..." Talos closed his eyes, letting out a sigh filled with despair and exhaustion.
He took the lead and walked toward the medical area illuminated by white light.
Resistance was meaningless. They accepted their fate.
They had completely given up on humans, and on Nick Fury.
"Accept it, children. Live on... at least we must survive."
Ultimately, led by Talos, they formed a long line and walked silently into the operating rooms.
Fortunately, Vought International's separation technology and equipment were extremely advanced, as if they were built specifically for their physiological structure.
The surgery precisely severed the genetic chains connected to unstable molecules within their bodies; the entire process was almost painless.
But as they stepped off the operating tables, every one of them felt as if a large piece of their soul was missing.
A young Skrull warrior stood before a mirror, trying hard to concentrate, attempting to simulate his facial features to match the guard beside him.
This was an instinct he had mastered since childhood, as natural as breathing.
But the green skin on his face only trembled slightly; nothing changed.
He failed.
He stared blankly at his reflection in the mirror, forever fixed in his original state, as tears slid down silently.
Having lost their mimicry ability, they had completely lost their greatest means of survival in this vast Universe.
Talos sat on a bench in the plaza, watching his clansmen walk out one by one with slumped heads, his fists clenched tightly.
He didn't resent the Vought International, because in this cruel Universe, survival of the fittest was the only truth.
Vought gave them soil to survive on; it was only right that they paid a price.
But he had completely given up on Nick Fury.
Decades of trust and sacrifice had been met with nothing but an absolute betrayal.
"From this day forward, Skrulls must rely on themselves." Talos closed his eyes and made a silent vow in his heart.
...
In stark contrast to the gloom of the Alaska Quarantine Zone, Chernobyl, on the other side of the Earth, welcomed the dawn of their victory.
A week had passed.
The gates of the New Skrullos Base slid open slowly to both sides.
Hundreds of searchlight beams shone down from the ceiling, lighting up the vast outdoor testing ground as bright as day.
Gravik stood on the observation deck, staring unblinkingly at the five figures walking out below.
They wore black, tight-fitting combat suits specially made for Skrulls, appearing no different from ordinary Skrull warriors on the surface.
"Begin the test," Gravik commanded into the microphone.
One Super Skrull Warrior in the center looked up, facing three heavy main battle tanks parked side-by-side a hundred meters away.
The warrior merely bent his legs slightly, and his body turned into a black afterimage difficult for the naked eye to track.
In less than a tenth of a second.
The warrior was already hovering directly above the three tanks, ignoring gravity, floating quietly in mid-air.
Gravik's heart skipped a beat.
Flight! Gravity-defying flight!
The Skrull warrior in mid-air lowered his head slightly, his eyes quickly covered in crimson.
Sizzle—!
Two crimson high-energy rays blasted from his eyes, accurately sweeping across the steel beasts below.
There was no resistance.
The moment the thick special composite armor touched the red rays, it was sliced right through; the metal melted into bright orange molten steel, dripping onto the ground along the tank treads, sending up large plumes of white smoke.
"Continue! Close combat destruction test!" Gravik shouted excitedly into the microphone.
The other four Skrull warriors moved simultaneously.
Like four cruise missiles, they crashed straight into the three-meter-thick special alloy blast wall at the other end of the testing ground.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four consecutive deafening roars rang out. The 500mm alloy wall was like foam under their impact; they smashed directly through the wall with their bodies, leaving four smooth-edged holes.
"Perfect... simply perfect!"
The adjutant, Pagon, standing nearby, was trembling with excitement. He turned toward Gravik and hissed, "General! We've succeeded! The rejection rate for gene fusion is zero! They have perfectly inherited all the abilities of that Homelander! Strength, speed, flight, high-energy rays, and... Steel Body!"
Gravik didn't speak. He stared intently at the five warriors hovering above the ruins, his inner ambition igniting like a fire doused in gasoline.
He laughed out loud in excitement.
"Hahahaha—!"
How many years had it been?
Since the Skrull homeworld was destroyed by the Kree Empire, they had been scurrying around the Universe like rats in a sewer.
They disguised themselves as other races, barely surviving, having to breathe with caution.
But now, everything had changed.
The new World is within reach!
Not only that, with an army composed of Homelanders, let alone a tiny Earth, who in the entire Milky Way could stop the Skrulls?
Revenge!
Images of the Kree Empire's massive interstellar fleet and those high-and-mighty Accusers flashed through Gravik's mind.
No, not just revenge. He felt it was time for the Universe to accept Skrull rule once again!
"General." Pagon handed over an experimental report. "The completion rate of the first batch of samples is very high, with a fusion rate infinitely approaching 100%."
Gravik took the report, flipped through two pages casually, and tossed it aside.
Since the experiment had proven that Homelander's biological samples were real and had no side effects, he would be the next to receive this power.
"Prepare the main laboratory immediately and clear out all non-essential personnel," Gravik ordered.